‘Bankers Fighting To Avert Economic Crisis.’ I noticed this on the bottom of an inside page of the Boston Globe. Well, a journalist is never truly on holiday, and I thought I had better investigate. But in the US, finding out what is going on is no easy matter.
My first port of call was the newspapers. These lack the sensationalist headlines that confront us in this country, and are mercifully free of celebrity tittle-tattle. Instead they are parochial and low key. Their pages are filled with press releases from the Mayor’s office, news of local road accidents and if you are lucky the occasional juicy murder, and the latest instalment of the seemingly continuous presidential campaign. Articles are written in the sort of matter-of-fact, downbeat, manner that seems to assume that nobody is really terribly interested. And this is probably right.
Radio is even worse. Turn on any station in Britain and you won’t go ten minutes before hearing a national news bulletin, often accompanied by some intelligent debate. But in the States the diet is one of country music punctuated by less than riveting commercial messages, along the lines of, ‘Hurry on down to Bob’s Tyre Shack, and you can buy 32-inch Super Radial Cross-Threads for just $99!’
But as for the TV – it is hard to describe just how ghastly American TV has become! To find out what is happening on the stock market, here is what you must do. First, flick through 56 channels in search of the right one. But since 40% of airtime is devoted to advertisements there is every chance that you will skip right past it without knowing. You may do so again on your second and third attempt. But if you persevere long enough, you eventually alight upon the financial news channel.
Overload; pass a heavy object
At this point you need to screw a second head upon your shoulders. Because a single set of senses is insufficient to absorb the pictures on the screen, the text message that runs across the top, the two ribbons of statistics that flow continuously across the bottom and the voices of never less than three experts speaking simultaneously in the sort of urgent, excited tones thought by some producer somewhere to turn the dry stuff of finance into good entertainment. It is all quite bewildering and if you don’t already have an attention span of fifteen seconds you soon will have.
American TV proves conclusively that quality varies inversely with the quantity of channels. I watched the ‘Live Golf Channel’ for half an hour without seeing a single shot played live. Instead it consisted of re-runs of old tournaments, a panel of pundits paying tribute to the programme’s various sponsors, and of course numerous commercial breaks the worst of which invariably come from financial organisations.
‘What our financial advisers understand,’ claimed the gravelly voice of Merrill Lynch, ‘is that there is something more than achieving wealth. There is achieving life.’ If you can sit through that sort of thing without heaving the nearest desk-lamp through the TV screen, then you are made of stern stuff. At least I could comfort myself with the knowledge that the hollow hypocrisy of Merrill’s message would make it a laughing stock in Britain.
But the fact that this tone seems to work in the United States tells you a lot about the blind faith of its citizens in the great institutions of the nation. Patriotism is alive and well. Wherever you go in Massachusetts the Stars and Stripes are proudly displayed. In Boston harbour I visited ‘Old Ironsides’, the name given to an ancient battleship called the USS Constitution that played a starring role in the war of independence. One old boy proudly announced that he had travelled two thousand miles to see this piece of American history, and then had his wife video him in the act of raising the flag, via rope and pulley, to mast head above.
This matters to the current hiatus. So far this is just a financial crisis. The question is whether it will turn into an economic crisis. Will the average Joe take fright, snap shut his wallet and stop spending?
But ignorance is bliss. And when ignorance is combined with an unshakeable patriotic faith it means that few US citizens will be paying attention to the frenzied cries of a few bankers and brokers and changing their fat and comfortable lifestyles.
P.S. If you want to follow the tales of a small company investor, and uncover the hidden gems of the stock market, then sign up for the Penny Sleuth e-letter. It won’t cost you a penny…